Lawrence Technological University - L Book Yearbook (Southfield, MI)

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THE ADMINISTRATION

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President 8. george Lfawrence During those first few years the college was in bad shape fi- nancially which put a great deal of responsibility on my shoul- ders. A period of about three years passed before the teachers could be paid their full salaries. In 1937, I originated the building fund, the objective of which was to build our own buildings sometime in the unforseen future. In 1941, during World War II, the building fund was used for other expenditures which arose at that tine. It became necessary to adopt a war training program in order to retain the instructors and literally keep the college together. After the war a majority of the original students returned to L.I.T. The enrollment increased to about 2500 which was the re- cord until 1956. The college began to prosper again and the building fund Was reorganized. L.I.T. purchased two tracts of land over the years. One was the old Packard Rolls Royce plant which was used as the Tech- nical Institute, and the other was the ninty-four acres on which Northland Shopping Center now stands. Three old maids owned the Northland property. They refused to sell to many real estate firms, but agreed to sell to the college. We originally planned to build a shopping center on the property with a four-story col- lege building next to it. The students were to use the shopping center parking facilities which would have been more than adequate. A large firm from the East heard of the proposed shopping center and put in a bid for the land. When Hudson's heard of this, they began their counter bidding to prevent any further com- petition in this area. The bidding went so high that we were forced to sell. Because the developing expressways in Detroit were to be routed through the old Packard plant, the city found it necessary to buy the Technical Institute property. Our next move was to buy the Latro Experimental Farms which consisted of more than two-hundred acres. The part of the farm which was situated east of Northwestern Highway was sold to the Bendix Aviation Company. The combined profits of these trans- actions was adequate to begin construction of the new building. Now that we have our new building, we are looking forward to a bright future for L.I.T., for there is much room and need for expansion. from the 1957 L-Book 24